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Figure 12 - HE student enrolments based wholly overseas by location and type of provision 2017/18 to 2021/22

HE Student Data

Figure 12 - HE student enrolments based wholly overseas by location and type of provision

Academic years 2017/18 to 2021/22

 
 
 

Oxford Brookes changed their reporting practices for the 2019/20 academic year around which students they include in their Aggregate Offshore return. This led to a drop of 256,450 students in 2019/20 for this provider, resulting in a significant drop to the overall number of student enrolments based wholly overseas. More information on this can be found in our data intelligence note on Oxford Brookes.

The coverage of the Aggregate Offshore record expanded in 2019/20 to include all English providers registered with the Office for Students (OfS) in the Approved (fee cap) and Approved categories and all publicly funded HE providers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Prior to 2019/20 the record collected data from all publicly funded HE providers in the UK and the University of Buckingham. From 2019/20, additional data was required from HEPs in England and Wales to also include students who are dormant for the entire reporting year. Students at HEPs in England and Wales who are dormant for the entire year have been excluded (except in the circumstance that they successfully completed their course during the reporting year). See the notes for more details on coverage.

Type of data

Administrative data

Data source

HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) is part of Jisc. We are the experts in UK higher education data and analysis. We have been collecting higher education information since the 1994/95 academic year.

Student data is taken from both the HESA Student record and the HESA Student Alternative record. Universities, colleges and other higher education providers return data to HESA via one or other of these records on an annual basis. The records collect a wide range of information, including data about students' personal characteristics, courses and modules of study, and qualifications achieved. The Student alternative record first began in the 2014/15 academic year, with data published from the record from 2015/16 onwards. Data on students pursuing teacher training qualifications is taken from the Initial Teacher Training record, while data on students studying wholly overseas is taken from the Aggregate offshore record.

We provide data and analysis on students to a wide variety of customers, including:

  • Governments
  • Universities (via the Heidi Plus analytics tool)
  • Academic and commercial researchers
  • Students and potential students
  • Policy makers.

Our data is used to regulate the sector, inform policy making, advance understanding of social and economic trends, support student decision making, and enhance public understanding of - and confidence in - the higher education sector.

Rounding and suppression strategy

We implement a rounding and suppression strategy in published and released tabulations designed to prevent the disclosure of personal information about any individual. This strategy involves rounding all numbers to the nearest multiple of 5 and suppressing percentages and averages based on small populations.

Related releases

We publish annual statistical bulletins about students in higher education.

Our HE Student Data pages collect together all of the tables we publish on students in higher education.

Further information

open-data   Open data licence: CC-BY-4.0